mardi 16 septembre 2008

"With analysts comparing the implosion of Lehman Brothers and the rescue takeover of Merrill Lynch to the crash of 1929, chancellor Alistair Darling this morning said it was vital that the world's central banks acted together to provide stability. Shortly afterwards, the Bank of England injected another £20bn into the markets to avoid liquidity freezing up again, but despite the move the cost of overnight borrowing leapt to its highest level since 2001."This global financial crisis has sent shockwaves across the industry," said Graham Goddard, Unite deputy general secretary."It is apparent that the free market system has completely broken down. Confidence in the financial services sector has been shattered."

The unions are calling for something to be done. The latest plunge "prompted Britain's biggest trade union, Unite, to call for urgent action."

Which would be the taxpayer stumping up further billions of pounds. Given that the European banks, only yesterday, were saying that there would be no 'concerted action' to stave off looming financial catastrophe, all central banks have been quick to volte face and - as per usual - to chuck money at the problem. It won't work(1) and, be clear, there is no defence for it. If the market wants to collapse - then let it. We've lived through 25 years of smug upper class politicians telling us that our problems (NHS, education, crime etc.) cannot be solved by throwing money at them. And now......the first sign of a - face it - not very big capitalist hiccup (alas, there are no huge worker deomnstrations, strikes, riots and toppling governments...yet (o, hold on, the Ukrainian government's just evaporated)) , the first sign of trouble and the bastards send the cheques out. But to the greedy fat guilty cats who bet and lost.

Lastly, the terminal thing a bloody union needs to do is to call for rescue measures for the very system that's caused the disaster in the first place. Get rid of these social policemen ffs.

Trouble is, it'll all blow over and things will 'return to normal' - unless people agitate for change. . .

____________(1) "Having pumped £5bn into the markets yesterday, the Bank of England today presented another £20bn in fresh liquidity. Banks rushed to take up the offer, which was three-times oversubscribed. This is the Bank's latest attempt to keep retail banks lending to each other. But the cost of overnight borrowing still spiked today, as banks again held onto their cash - threatening a new credit crunch.